hon. Cynthia Morrison

Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection

Cynthia Mamle Morrison is a Ghanaian politician and a member of the New Patriotic Party. She is currently the member of parliament for Agona West constituency. On 9 August 2018, she was appointed as Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection by President Nana Akufo-Addo.

She acquired a teacher training certificate at Maria Montessori Training School in 1992. She also has certificates in catering. She is married to Herbert Morrison with seven children. She identifies as a Christian

Ms. Anne-Claire Dufay

UNICEF Ghana Country Representative

Mrs. Anne-Claire Dufay has been working in Ghana since January 2018, as UNICEF Representative. She has twenty-two years of international professional experience. Prior to this assignment, she worked in East Jerusalem from May 2014 to December 2017, as UNICEF Deputy Special Representative. She was also UNICEF Deputy Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina from January 2009 to April 2014.

Anne-Claire Dufay served as UNICEF Chief of Child Protection in Myanmar (mid-2003 to 2008) and East Timor (2000 to mid-2003). She worked as UNICEF Child Protection Officer with the Bangladesh country office from 1998 to early 2000. She worked with local NGOs in Guatemala (Casa Alianza and Proden) in the areas of Child Rights and Protection, and with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris. 

Mrs Dufay holds a Post-Master Degree in Public International Law (Diplôme d’Etudes Appliquées en Droit des Relations Economiques Internationales et Communautaires et du Développement), from the Paris X-Nanterre University, France. Anne-Claire Dufay was born in France. During her childhood, she lived in Algeria, Italy, Island of Reunion, and Ivory Coast. She is married, with two children aged 12 and 15 years. She speaks French, English, Spanish and Italian.

James Adongo Awini​​

Deputy Country Director, Lively Minds, Ghana 

James has 12 years’ experience as a teacher in Ghana’s Basic and Secondary level schools. He joined Lively Minds as the Upper East Regional Manager and rose to become the Deputy Country Director. As the Regional Manager, James managed the team and programme activities in the Upper East Region and was instrumental in Lively Minds’ growth in the region, working with Regional and District GES to expand the Programme from 7 communities in 2 Districts to 114 communities in 3 districts. As Deputy Country Director, he leads the programme implementation team in Ghana to ensure the expected outcomes are met and the programme meets quality standards. He leads regional engagements and supports the Country Director in national engagements.

Fati Bagna Seyni 

Fati Bagna Seyni joined UNICEF DRC in August 2018 as an Education Specialist with the responsabilities of Chief of Education and Education Cluster Coordinator in Goma field Office. Since February 2019, she has been deployed to lead and support the UNICEF DRC Education Response. Before joining UNICEF DRC, Fati worked as an EIE Specialist for CAMRIS International in Bamako (Mali) where she first provided her support to the Malian Ministry of Education in integrating the EiE into pre-service and in-service teacher training curricula and then for UNICEF in Mbuji Mayi DRC in support to the Kasai L3 crisis. Previously, Fati spent over three years with UNICEF in her home country  of Niger where she served as an Education Cluster Coordinator and leading the UNICEF Niger EiE program for IDP,  for Malian refugee, and Nigerian refugee  children, including through access to a quality and relevant education; she has done emergency deployments to UNICEF Haiti,  during the Hurricane Mathiew crisis. Prior to UNICEF Niger, she was with the Millenium Challenge Account as the Social Sector Expert focused on education policies. 

Fati holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Dakar, Senegal, an International Diploma in Education Planning from the International Institute of Education Planning (IIEP/UNESCO), Paris, France and a Certificate in Education Planning, Policy and Administration from the Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

Naa Koshie Lamptey-Marquaye (Mrs)

Secretary, National Council for Private Early Childhood Growth and Development

Naa Koshie Lamptey-Marquaye (Mrs.) is the Secretary, National Council for Private Early Childhood Growth and Development. She has a passion for working with children. She has been a trained early childhood practitioner for over two decades, with extensive knowledge, skills and attitudes that help to improve early childhood practice in Ghana through workshops and training programmes organised by some private early childhood education training institutions .She is into mentoring and coaching of early childhood practitioners at different levels.She is also a Preschool Lead Teacher, a Guest Lecturer on Montessori Education at the National Nursery Teachers' Training Centre. Naa Koshie is a certified multilingual communications expert with a degree in Mass Communication from the Ghana Institute of Journalism, with first-class honors. She has two international certificates in French Language Studies. In her quest to build on her knowledge base and competences, she has attended many training programmes, to build capacity on her field of practice and related services. In addition, she loves to self-study.

Regina Baiden 

Research and Policy Coordinator, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Ghana

Regina Baiden is a Research and Policy Coordinator at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Ghana where she works with education stakeholders to explore ways of scaling interventions which IPA's research have shown to have meaningful impacts. Prior to IPA, she worked with the West Africa Civil Society Institute as a Policy and Advocacy Officer, designing and implementing programmatic initiatives across West Africa. She has over 6 years of experience in the development sector havingpreviously worked with organizations including the Institute of Economic Affairs Ghana, the Women and Public Policy Programat Harvard University, International Rescue Committee and UN Women. Regina holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy with a specialization in Gender and Development from Tufts University, as well as a Master’s in Rhetoric and Technical Communication from Michigan Technological University.

Elena Locatelli

Education in Emergency and Resilience for UNICEF WCARO

Strong of 25 years of professional experience in the Education sector, Elena Locatelli is the Education in Emergency and Resilience for UNICEF WCARO. Always passionate about this field, she truly believes that the development of a country passes through the opportunities given to the youngest generation to discover, know, and learn.  After working for 9 years in NGOs, she yearned to be able to influence governments on Education Policy and decided to join UNICEF in 2009. 

Prior to WCARO, Elena served as chief Education in Mali, for 3 and half year, where she was responsible for the design and management of the Education Program, including Education in Emergency interventions, revisiting the education and pedagogical methods used in the past as a starting point for creatively rethinking how education issue can be addressed in the 21st Century. Prior to Mali she served as Education Specialist in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Goma Eastern Zone office, for seven years, leading a team of 9 staff located in four different Provinces, where she collaborated in the implementation of Cash Transfers in the Rapid Response Mechanism approach for the education component. She contributed to the development of a guide on Natural Risk Reduction for schools under volcanic threats. 

Mrs Hannah Awadzi

Executive Director, The Special Mothers Project

Mrs Hannah Awadzi is a Communications Professional and Journalist, she is the Executive Director of an Advocacy Programme called The Special Mothers Project. The Special Mothers Project advocates and creates awareness about cerebral palsy issues and issues affecting families raising children with Special Needs. She has strongly advocated for the full implementation of Ghana's Inclusive Education Policy. Mrs Awadzi is also a Registered Psychologist Assistant with the Ghana Psychological Council and enjoys counseling families especially mothers raising or nurturing children with Cerebral palsy and other disabilities She is married with three children, her first child (a girl) has cerebral palsy. She is an author of the book titled :The Unexpected, an inspirational that chronicles her journey with her daughter with cerebral palsy.

Dr. Edward Antwi

Senior Specialist (Public Health), Ghana Health Service

Dr. Edward Antwi is a Senior Specialist (Public Health) in the Reproductive and Child Health Department, Family Health Division, Ghana Health Service. Before that he was Deputy Director (Public Health), Regional Health Directorate, Greater Accra Region, Ghana Health Service.  He has worked in district hospitals in the Ashanti and Greater Accra regions of Ghana.

He coordinates child health programmes at the Ghana Health Service.

Devon Castano

Director, Above and Beyond Childcare and Education Center

Devon Castano is the Director of Above and Beyond Childcare and Education Center in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Above and Beyond is a high quality, Reggio-Inspired center that cares for and educates children aged 6 months through pre-kindergarten. The values of the center place an emphasis on social and emotional development through child-led exploration. Ms.Castano has 12 years of experience in the early childhood field including several degrees in Early Childhood Education and is pursuing her master's degree in Special Education Inclusion from The University of Michigan